Thursday, April 29, 2010

After the public vote regarding last year's publications on the Romanian sci fi book market, now the editors have published their own choices. The list(s) can be found at cititorsf.ro and I must say their picks are much closer to my own than the general vote results. So thumbs up!

I guessed 6 out of 8 winners, even if I didn't vote accordingly. I don't necessarily agree with all the results, but to be fair I should have read everything in order to make a well-informed decision, which I didn't.

All I can say is that I didn't like Hyperion that much. Sure, it's well written and well translated and that made it an easy read, but it just didn't do it for me. I kept feeling that something was lacking in some way. To that added the fact that I'm not really into fantasy and I can't stand novels that don't explain everything and stop shortly urging you to buy the sequel if you want to find out the answers to all the questions. As a result, and also as a protest, I didn't and I won't.

Something similar happened to Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels. It was my first encounter with George R. R. Martin's prose, and I could tell he writes well, very well even, but again it was not my cup of tea. It wasn't the writer's fault, this is a matter of personal taste, but it's not enough for a story to be well-written, I have to like what a story tells/shows me too, and in this case I didn't.

Regrets: I would have liked The Last Message is Eternity by Danut Ungureanu to win, but then again I haven't read The Epidemic yet so who knows, maybe I'd like this one better. If it's anything like the story published in the SRSFF anthology then I won't. The other regret is related to the fact that Dancing on Mars didn't win for Best Cover Art, and how Dune: The Machine's Crusade got more votes is beyond me. On a side note The Machine's Crusade was even worse than The Butlerian Jihad and I'm not talking about the cover, but the writing style and translation too.

What I gained from this voting process: it made me glad that I didn't waste my time reading some of the books I've read last year whether I liked them or not. It also made me curious to read the winning Romanian novel and short story, though I'm not sure where to find The Epidemic yet.

About the polls: nominating was difficult, but voting was easy in most categories. It was nice to see they've learned something from last year's voting process and didn't show the partial results this time. It looks like the votes are more balanced compared to last year, but it's hard to tell because the results are all scrambled. They should have been sorted or have some charts with different length bars to see them better. Maybe next time.

Anyway, congratulations to the entire CititorSF team for their initiative.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

A bit late, but it was Easter so I got distracted by yummy food and other things and I forgot to announce that voting time has begun for CititorSF's readers. Luckily there still time as the polls are open until April 13.

The easiest category to vote in was Best Cover Art and I was glad to see "Dancing on Mars and Other Fantasy Stories" got nominated. That cover rocks!

Friday, April 2, 2010

The Easter Bunny came early this year and it brought another story. This one I've really enjoyed writing and the end result is not that far from what I had intended in the first place. I can almost see two sequels written in the future... when I get around to do that.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Two Olympic Games have passed since the 2002 events that brought a major change to the figure skating world – the much discussed Code of Points – and the ISU has announced a special summer congress to be held in The Maldives, in order to assess the development of the sport and address the issues at hand. Among the topics are:

COP changes - as it has been demonstrated in competitions that the ladies are perfectly capable to execute triple Axels and quadruple jumps, there is no need to make a difference between Ladies’ and Men’s programs anymore. Starting next season, it will be mandatory for the men to include a spiral sequence and a Biellmann spin in their programs.- however, since the safety of the athletes must come first, all triple jumps will score zero points regardless of how they are performed, as single or in combination, and the base value of the quad will always be negative.- artistry will be evaluated solely on arm flapping and fist pumping.- taking action in advance, before the music industry sues for copyright infringement, a selection of 10 music pieces will be presented in the beginning of each season for skaters to choose from. These selections include Carmen, Requiem for a Dream, Adagio, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Otonal, Moonlight Sonata, any music by Astor Piazzolla, tango or flamenco.- the recycling of old programs and costumes will be prohibited.

New competition- by public demand, all skaters who repeatedly failed to qualify for the free skate, will get a chance to perform their programs once every four years during the Summer Olympic Games. The competition will be called Little Olympics and the medals will be made of tin foil and candy wrappers.

New training facilities- all year outdoor training camps will be created in the North Pole area. Skaters will be in charge of transportation, but once arrived they’ll get free food and lodging. They will also be provided with guns and taught survival skills and the Inuit language just in case they get lost.

Cutting costs and advertising measures- the number of judges will be reduced to 5, from which only two will count. The other two will give the highest and lowest marks and thus ignored, while the third will be appointed as official corrupt judge and his job will be to take all the bribes and transfer them to unofficial ISU’s accounts.- instead of laptops, judges will be provided with wrist watches with calculators, pencils and post-it notes.- the technical caller will stand by the boards and use a megaphone to announce the elements for both the judges and the audience.- standard blades will be two inches wide and have round edges to save on fuel and Zamboni time.- skaters will be encouraged to display as many logos on their costumes as possible. For those who can’t afford new costumes or have no sponsors, bathing suits will be accepted.- retired skaters will be paid small fees to appear behind the boards during TV broadcasts.- short training courses will be organized for cameramen to teach them what the public wants to see on TV.- fees for live broadcasting rights will skyrocket.- access to any media and communication devices will be forbidden inside the rink, including photo and video cameras, laptops, notebooks, phones, iPhones, etc.- bringing food and beverages inside the arena will be allowed provided the volunteers taste everything in advance (because they have to be fed too).

ISU Internal Regulations- the President will be elected for life.- the skaters will need approval from the ISU to retire.- ISU will get a cut of the ice shows’ income for lending them the skaters.- anyone who badmouths the federation or the sport, whether it’s an official, skater, journalist or fan, will get a two years ban from having any involvement with the sport.